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So, I have been doing some reading outside of my time period lately, and I have come to realise that much of the information easily available mostly ignores the deeply complicated relationships between the vassals and the emperors many titles and roles. I've had a particulary hard time finding any details about the vassal's duties to the emperor at diferent periods of the middle ages, as well as the political role that the prince-bishops and the cities played within the empire.

So i wanted to know if anyone around here has some answers to these questions:

What exactly were the empires vassals' (nominal) duties towards their lord, particularly during the High Middle Ages?

Did they have to pay tribute? Offer military support when needed? And to what extent was this upheld?

Where there any difference between the vassals of the Kingdom of Germany and those of the Kindom of Italy?

What did so many post-investiture controversy emperors expect to gain from the northern Italian states?
Income, manpower, prestige?

What was the role of the prince-bishops in the power balance in Germany? Did they act just like any other noble, or where they less interested in expansion? With whom did their alligiance lie in times of war between the emperor and other princes, or the emperor and the papacy?

And lastly what where the duties of the free imperial cities?

Thanks in advance :)

Edit: I'm mostly interested in the times of Frederick I's and Charles V's reigns
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